An Immunoinformatic-Based In Silico Identification on the Creation of a Multiepitope-Based Vaccination Against the Nipah Virus

Abstract

The zoonotic viruses pose significant threats to public health. Nipah virus (NiV) is an emerging virus transmitted from bats to humans. The NiV causes severe encephalitis and acute respiratory distress syndrome, leading to high mortality rates, with fatality rates ranging from 40% to 75%. The first emergence of the disease was found in Malaysia in 1998-1999 and later in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Timor-Leste, Indonesia, Singapore, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam, Thailand, India, and other South and Southeast Asian nations. Currently, no specific vaccines or antiviral drugs are available. The potential advantages of epitope-based vaccines include their ability to elicit specific immune responses while minimizing potential side effects. The epitopes have been identified from the conserved region of viral proteins obtained from the UniProt database. The selection of conserved epitopes involves analyzing the genetic sequences of various viral strains. The present study identified two B cell epitopes, seven cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) epitopes, and seven helper T lymphocyte (HTL) epitope interactions from the NiV proteomic inventory. The antigenic and physiological properties of retrieved protein were analyzed using online servers ToxinPred, VaxiJen v2.0, and AllerTOP. The final vaccine candidate has a total combined coverage range of 80.53%. The tertiary structure of the constructed vaccine was optimized, and its stability was confirmed with the help of molecular simulation. Molecular docking was performed to check the binding affinity and binding energy of the constructed vaccine with TLR-3 and TLR-5. Codon optimization was performed in the constructed vaccine within the Escherichia coli K12 strain, to eliminate the danger of codon bias. However, these findings must require further validation to assess their effectiveness and safety. The development of vaccines and therapeutic approaches for virus infection is an ongoing area of research, and it may take time before effective interventions are available for clinical use.

Keywords: B cell epitope; Nipah virus; T cell epitope; epidemiology; epitope-based vaccine.

Figure 1

Vaccine construct.

Figure 2

Anticipated Nipah virus secondary conformation: (a) visual representation of PSIPRED's result page; (b) graphical representation of expected secondary structure features.

Figure 3

The SOPMA result page showing two graphs: (a) the first illustrates the prediction step; (b) the second displays the predicted score curves.

Figure 4

(a) The Ramachandran plot of Nipah virus multiepitope vaccine. (b) z-score value plot of Nipah virus multiepitope vaccine.

Figure 5

(a) 3D mapping structure of continuous and discontinuous epitopes. (b) 2D score chart of the constructed multiepitope vaccine candidate of Nipah virus continuous and discourteous epitopes.

Figure 6

(a) The 3D structure of the constructed vaccine candidate. (b) The 3D structure of disulfide bond formation after mutation in seven residues of chain A and chain B.

Figure 7

Molecular docking of Nipah virus multiepitope vaccine candidate with (a) TLR3 and TLR5 and (b) MHC-II.

Figure 8

The combined world population coverage of constructed vaccine.